The Perfect Christmas
by MagicallyClaire'd
Summary: The team spend Christmas eve and Christmas day with Max at his home while his parents are in the states. (Second upload because it removed all the spaces for scene cuts. Nightmare site...)


**Authors Note.**** I think this is where I write my authors note anyway... **

**I got the idea to write this by Katya. So blame her I guess. I'm very bad at ending fic's and I didn't want to leave it open ended otherwise I'd get people asking for more. I don't think there's any need to continue this but I MAY write a New Years Eve story as I have a ghost of an idea for one. But I'm not promising anything. **

**I hope the glorious spinning top Fandom has a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate it), and if I don't end up writing a NYE fic I want to wish you a Happy New Year! = ) **

**Claire xxx**

* * *

"I can't believe you've never celebrated Christmas before!"

The Chinese blader laughed softly in reply. "Well I guess I gotta lot to look forward to Max..."

The two guys sat on the carpet taping paper chains together. Ray himself found it rather therapeutic but felt highly amused at Max's impatience; the tape sticking to his fingers instead of the paper strips and forgetting the order of colours he had decided upon himself.

Tyson was flicking through an old fashion magazine that belonged to Judy. He declared that his chain will have the "most boobs" but had only succeeded in cutting out four strips so far.

Their 'team leader' was flicking through a beyblade engineering magazine leaning on his chair with legs on the table. He hadn't even touched his scissors.

"My parents said they left a turkey in the freezer but like hell I'm cooking that thing…" Max frowned at his chain confused how he had managed to make a mess over something so simple.

"May I give it a go?"

Max raised his eyebrow at his friend. "Sure be my guest Ray, although… I was thinking we should just go out for a meal."

"Agreed. I'm not trusting you guys with an oven."

Ray tried to throw Kai a dirty look but as usual he wasn't even looking.

"YOU GUYS! ARE YOU EVEN TRYING?!" Max left his mess on the floor to grab Tysons measly strip pile and slapped him across the cheek with them.

"And KAI! You haven't even…." He stopped and stared at him. "Actually you know what. This is pretty much exactly what I expected from you."

Hiwatari shot him an eyebrow raise and went back to reading.

"UGH!" He collapsed back down dramatically and groaned into the carpet.

Tyson closed Judy's magazine and watched his friends tantrum, resting his head on his hand.

"Why you getting so worked up about paper chains for Maxie?"

Their friend sighed heavily into the carpet and rolled over. "I dunno, I'm sorry you guys… it's just I wanted this Christmas to be perfect. Ya know?"

His teammates stared in awkward silence. Kai picked up his scissors and snapped them in the air out of boredom.

"Why? Because we're here?" Tyson replied eventually. "We're not expecting it to be perfect Max we're just here because we're your friend."

"Yeah. Tyson's just here to raid your fridge." Kai said between scissor snips and relished the dirty look he received in return.

"Noooo it's for my parents, this is the first time we've spent it apart… I just wanted to show them we could pull it off fine without their help…"

Ray stopped fiddling with his paper chain and stared sadly at his friend, thinking of the things he'd do to reassure the White Tigers he was doing okay without them.

"And I can't even get the tree right!" Max gestured dramatically at the plastic tree still in pieces in the corner of the room. "It hates me! It's slotted together for years, but no! The SECOND my parents leave even the lights break!"

Kai smirked as Max buried his face back into the carpet and whined pathetically.

"It's hardly your fault if Tyson is a dipshit."

Tyson picked up the magazine and slapped him viciously in the face provoking another round of magazine slap fight. Ray rolled his eyes. This is exactly why they needed Kenny.

"Will you two get a room?!" Ray barked. He stood up and confiscated their weapons. "Can I have a word? Privately."

His intense gaze made Tyson gulp and Kai stare at the fist gripping his Grinch T-shirt. Before they could even reply Ray had dragged them and they stepped over the sad Tate mess on the soft blue carpet and out the corridor down the steps - somewhere Ray was confident Max would be less likely to overhear.

He pushed his teammates against the wall once he let go of them. "Listen, I might not know much about this holiday but one thing I do know is our friend is upset and this means a lot to him."

Tyson scratched his head. "Alright alright, I'll go back and make more chains geez…" He rubbed his arm where Ray had grabbed him so tight.

Ray frowned and crossed his arms making Kai question his own body language.

"No…." He shut his eyes and the two stared awkwardly at each other and back at him several times before he spoke again. "We need to get him drunk."

"Yess!" Kai grinned. "I like this plan!"

Their caffeinated teammate scrunched up his face. "Drunk?"

Ray sighed. "We need to get him very drunk."

"That'll be a piece of cake, kids a lightweight."

"But he mustn't suspect a thing..."

"He won't. He trusts people too much. Like to a flaw."

"WILL YOU GUYS TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING?" Tyson had two sets of hands scramble to cover his mouth up. He got the message and shot them an exasperated shrug and an expression on his face that said: 'question mark'?!

Ray got close to the 'world champion' and whispered their plan.

* * *

The blond bladebreaker leaned back on the large green beanbag frowning at the TV screen and took another shot of vodka. Kai immediately filled it back up again.

"All I know is… it's something about this 'Captain Picard's' evil clone…"

The game was going very well, Ray had never seen a Star Trek film either but his bottle was one that Kai had filled with water; all he felt was the need to run to the toilet. Two bottles were replaced with water: his and Tyson's. Kai shared the one with actual vodka with Max to avoid suspicion.

Max was drinking at a somewhat alarming frequency as he took the rules of Kai's drinking game a little too seriously, anytime a phrase confused him, or the plot confused him he held the shot glass out to his teammate. The fact that the sourpuss was serving him immediately should have been a red flag but turns out the sourpuss in question was right. Max was regretfully too eager to trust them.

"Do…"

They all held their breath in anticipation. "Do you think that Tom Hardy will look like Patrick Stewart when he's older?"

Tyson exchanged a glance with Ray. Hopefully a little longer and the Blond would start feeling sleepy.

His blue haired friend patted his shoulder in response to his important question. "Yes Max. Yes I do."

Max took the drink he was offered. This time apparently drinking it without reason.

"I wanted to watch Elf…"

"I'm team captain you have to do I say."

"But it's freakin' Christmas eve Kai…" Max flopped backwards onto his beanbag. "You're such a bastard…"

The bastard smirked at Ray and Tyson.

"Hey Max do you wanna help me leave out a snack for Santa?" Tyson pulled at his arm roughly. "Come on man… if we don't do it now we'll go to bed and forget."

Kai leaned against the beanbag and tilted his head at the tipsy guy.

"What are you doing?" Max said with caution in his voice.

"I'm going to stare at you until you do it."

He stared into his intimidating unblinking crimson eyes for a few seconds before deciding it wasn't worth the nightmares.

"Alright fiiiiine…"

He let Tyson and Ray lift him and drag him towards the kitchen while Kai drank straight out of what was left of the bottle of vodka and watched his film in peace.

* * *

Draciel's owner woke up blinking at the light across his bed with a splitting headache, the noise he made sound like one of Kai's more friendly greeting grunts as he turned to face away from the blinding sunshine. He could have stayed in bed for hours but he kept hearing noises coming from outside his bedroom.

He reluctantly sat up rubbing his sore eyes to realise he was in his parents bedroom and the previous days events began flooding back in.

Oh shit. It's Christmas. My parents are…. Aren't coming back until New Year's Eve… but then my team said they'd come over! Even the sourpuss!

He looked around but couldn't see his teammates who normally snuggled up with him, although it did smell like them. He thought he could still smell Ray's shampoo and Kai's cologne either side of his pillow.

So that's what all the noise is… He heard rock music blaring from the speakers and chatter.

But then he remembered the paper chains…. And the tree… oh god the tree… He buried his face in his hands. What was his mum going to think when he went video chat with her later? Luckily because of the timezones that wouldn't be for a few more hours… if that alarm clocks batteries were working anyway.

He sat up further and stretched his arms when he realised there was something on the end of the bed. It was his stocking! Max grinned like a kid and scrambled to pick it up.

"Aw, you guuuys…" It was filled with chocolates, candy and fruit. It almost made up for the hangover and he immediately started eating the candy.

Max listened to the muffled chatter and rock music coming from the living room before tumbling out of the covers. Suddenly something shiny on the carpet caught his sleepy eyes and he walked towards the door to pick it up. It was a wrapped chocolate.

He figured it must have fallen out of the stocking when they filled it until he had opened the door and saw a line of matching chocolates leading to the living room door.

"What the crap…"

He quietly stepped towards the door, although the music was loud enough that he needn't bother. He gently pushed the door open and peeked his head inside.

"Two cups of cinnamon doesn't sound right, I'm pretty sure that would kill us."

Kai squinted at his phone again. "Eh, you're right. Spoons, Cups whatever…" His Russian accent slipping out.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING?"

They all jumped at Max's yelling. His head was poking out of the doorway, mouth wide open at the Christmas Tree.

"Merry Christmas Max!" Ray held up a wooden spoon from the kitchen area.

"MAX!" Tyson dropped his own utensils and ran to hug his hungover best friend. "Did you like the stocking? I told them not to put the fruit in but they wouldn't listen to me"

Max wouldn't look away from the tree. "Did you guys do this?!"

"Y-yeah do you like it?"

"How long was I asleep?!"

The team laughed at his distraught face and Tyson gave him another hug.

Ray slipped his apron off and approached them. Kai remained seated on the table watching.

"You went to bed early after all those drinks last night so we thought we'd surprise you."

"We all know what it's like to miss our family" Tyson added. "Plus we felt bad for messing things up…"

"We found some tape strong enough in your dad's workshop that held the tree together. Kai searched how to fix broken lights." Ray continued and pointed at Tyson. "He put our chains together and finished them…"

"I helped get you wasted!" Kai boasted smugly from behind. "And carried you!"

"I HELPED!" Tyson bickered.

The long haired blader let out an exasperated sigh.

"You guys…. It's so beautiful…" Max gazed around the room in awe of all the paper chains they had strung up, quietly wondering what magazines they destroyed in the process.

Kai's eyes shot up. "I think he's gonna cry…"

Ray smiled warmly. "And we even started cooking dinner so you can save the money for another night."

Max grabbed Ray by his shirt and gave him a tight hug. Tyson lunged at them and joined in, making them yelp from the sudden assault and the three of them laughed while their team leader rolled his eyes before giving them a rare Hiwatari smile.

Tyson caught his breath and dragged Max closer to the tree. "Okay so like… don't touch it because it will definitely fall apart… but I put the baubles together to make a boob tree."

"So I can see…" Max giggled with an arm around his friend.

The Chinese blader picked his apron and put it back on turning back towards the kitchen.

After Max had done admiring their hard work in the living room he joined Ray and Kai.

"So, uh, what do you need so much cinnamon anyway?"

His teammate turned around to nod at Kai. "I dunno Max he won't tell me." Ray chuckled.

"Five ounces of sugar… or is that a three… fuck I need my eyes tested." Kai squinted at his phone.

"Just TELL me what it is!" Ray laughed and threw the wooden spoon at him.

* * *

After the mystery cooking game had finished - which had turned out to be cookies - the team sat around the potentially lethal christmas boob tree.

Max had received a disturbing amount of candy. Tyson had his face stuck in a pile of superhero comics. Ray had a basket of trinkets the team had collected from various countries and was flicking through baseball cards. Kai had his nose stuck in a book of conspiracy theories and had been forced to wear the hideous grinch socks Tyson had gave him to match his pajamas.

Max finally got to watch Elf. The cookies only just got out of the oven before the smoke alarm was set off. So to his standards: Christmas this year was a success.

(Hi I'm Claire I suck at endings sorry.)


End file.
